The breakthrough film for Robert De Niro,
Harvey Keitel and of course, director Martin Scorsese. A common story of small
time hoods, familial bonding, pervasive violence and the religious overtones
while surviving in New York's Little Italy. We would see much more advanced,
superior and mature works from all three in their future films and
collaborations.

NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

ADDITION:
Warner - Region FREE- Blu-ray -
June 12':
I can't state with any certainty the original color
scheme of Scorsese's Mean Streets but I do lean
to the new Warner
Blu-ray
as looking more natural in terms of skin tones.

Is that greenish/teal hue supposed to be there? I
haven't a clue. Reds seems more prominent. The 1.78:1 US
Blu-ray
is single-layered with a smaller bitrate than the French
disc. It offers English (and other subtitles) as well as
the featurette and commentary that was on the original
SD-DVD. Bottom line this is significantly more
reasonably priced (almost 50%) than the European 1080P
and is region
FREE. Certainly recommended!

***

ADDITION: Carlotta - Region
'B' -
Blu-ray:
The new 1080P transfer from Carlotta in France represents a solid
upgrade from the previous DVDs. Colors support the NTSC transfer with
some green and brown hues which tend to make the German E.M.S. SD edition
possibly look boosted. It seems like the stock used for the production may have
been a less-effectual one and it gives the film a very rough appearance
- which, may be an intentional, or rather, authentic to original, look.
The
Blu-ray
image tightens up from the DVD with better detail and grain with blocky
noise. It is dual-layered with a strong bitrate. There is a shade of
movement in the frame but the new transfer shows at least as much
information as the US DVD - but often more on all 4 edges. Simply, with
far less artifacts - this Carlotta is vastly superior to the previous
digital editions.

Audio goes lossless with a
linear PCM track but it is fairly docile - yet sounding a less
scattered. There are French subtitles which can be removed with the
'Subtitle' button of most remotes. The disc is region 'B'-locked.

There are well over 2 hours of extras - we lose the
Scorsese commentary from the 2004 DVD but most of what is available here
is in English (with forced French subtitles) including pieces with De
Niro, Keitel, Scorsese and Kent Jones.

Fans of the director should probably seek this out as the
best home theater representation of his early film plus the supplemental
inclusion of Scorsese's 1974 Italianamerican documentary made
right after Mean Streets. It is fascinating to discover that only
3 years later Scorsese would make
Taxi Driver (now also available on
Blu-ray).

***

ON THE DVDs: There are two versions of EMS
disc: the normal one and the 2-disc limited edition with the full screen
version of the movie with only German soundtrack on the second disc.

The documentary on the E.M.S. 1st disc is quite interesting, it shows
Scorsese during preparing and filming of "The Last Temptation...", but
it's with German voice-over.

I can only
guess there is something unusual with the available print
for this early Scorsese film. It's hard to know what to think... they both
look poor but may be a representation of the meager budget. The region 1 is cropped on top and the Region 2 is cropped on
the bottom as well as the both sides. It seems uneven so I would think
some zooming may have taken place. The German is hazier and has been brightness boosted. I
*think* the region 1's colors may be more accurate, but skin tones are too
red and it has a greenish tinge. Both are ineffectual, but perhaps as good as
we will get, after all it is is the (SE). Hopeful fans for it to improve
drastically on the initial release will be disappointed. True Scorsese
devotees may want both for the Region 2 documentary and the Region 1
commentary. As it stands now, we say the Region 1 SE is the best available
edition.